Finishing the bike ride

We took 3 and a half days from Monmouth to Lands End. Monmouth – Taunton, Taunton – Okehampton, Okehampton to St Ives and then St – Ives to Lands End. The weather wasn’t that good and from Taunton to Okehampton was a nightmare, it rained all day and because we took a few b roads the hills were really steep and my knee started to hurt. The last 10 miles of that day i walked as there was no way i wanted to jepodise the Dakar with an injury. After i rested it abit it was Ok to ride the next day. We decided to take a short cut across the Avon Bridge and couldnt find a cycle path so decided to save time we’d nip across on the M5. Yes, we did get caught and yes it was well embarrsing, they actually caught us when we’d found the cycle track on the bridge but it was over quite a high barrier and we were lifting the bikes over. I think they took pity on us as the weather was soo bad and let us off.

It was a relief to get to Lands End we had been cycling about 80 miles per day, the longest being 86 miles. We’d been abit restricted with it getting dark about 4pm but we made it. Fair play to Kate who’d done the whole ride from John O’ Groats – She’s planning to do it again in the summer, i never want to see a moutain bike again. We had alot of support and places to stay during the trip so thanks to everyone who helped us out, rode with us and made us cups of tea.